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Wednesday, 2 July 2008

I hope comrades won't mind if I indulge in a local post for local people. In yesterday's edition of Stoke's local paper, The Sentinel, it was announced that 25 post offices are going to be closed across Staffordshire. So moved were local Labour MPs, Joan Walley and "the quiet republican", Paul Farelly that their interviews in The Sentinel are full of indignation.

Walley said:

"I am bitterly disappointed and angry with the decision to close the Fegg Hayes post office. I think it is a decision that has been reached in a flawed way. The residents have put up a strong fight because of concerns that some people won't be able to access these services, especially since the closures of post offices in Chell Heath, Brindley Ford and Packmoor."

And Farrelly followed:

"I am particularly concerned that the Post Office has chosen to ignore the great wave of public opposition in May Bank and the concerns that Postwatch had about that closure."

Aren't Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme fortunate to have these MPs championing a vital local service?

Hold on a moment. When the post office network closure programme came before parliament in March, didn't our plucky fighters fail to stand up against the government? Incredibly, Farrelly and Walley conjured up a left-sounding argument to cover for their capitulation. Justifying his abstention, Farrelly said "There was a lot of hypocrisy from the Tories because they have done nothing to subsidise post offices in the past, whereas this Government has, but there has to be a limit", and "I would not vote with an opportunistic Conservative motion [against the closure programme]", whined Walley, trying to spin her vote for the network's decimation.

And Labour is still left wondering why it faces electoral oblivion in two years time.

it's a bit of a habit or Labour MPs these days, I wrote about it back in March and there's 7 cabinet ministers trying to make local political capital out of campaigning to save POs shut by their own government. And remember Hazel Blears marching to save Hope Hospital in Salford?